curiously_cora | (no subject)

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Coraline yawned, stretching her arms up as she kicked her sheets off her bed. Legs dangling off the end of the bed Coraline sat up onto her arms and stared down at legs that were longer then last night. Coraline knew she grew and grew quite quickly but this was ridiculous. Swinging her legs over Coraline walked over to her marked door and stood back against it before placing her hand above her head.

"How have I grown two inches?" Coraline asked curiously before frowning at her voice. It sounded weird. It sounded older. Coraline looked down at herself, at the clothes that had been too big on her last night but were now too snug. Especially around the chest area. "What the-BILL! BILL!"

Coraline opened her door, storming out into the hall and down towards the kitchen before she finally caught sight of her reflection. Coraline paused mouth open in shock as she looked at her face... her body! Coraline swallowed before giggling. This was going to be so awesome! She looked old!

"Nevermind!" Coraline yelled, turning around and around as she looked herself over. "This is so cool."

Looking around Coraline grabbed one of Bill's shirts and ran back towards her room with a happy whoop. Coraline put her 'DO NOT DISTURB' sign on her door before shutting it with a bang. Coraline needed a plan of action, Coraline needed to... get rid of her Coraline-ness.

"Okay, let's see. No key, no bracelet, no catbag, no Cat you'll have to stay here, no... wellies. Oh, but I like my wellies." Coraline said grumbling to herself as she began to write a list of things she wanted to do now that she was a Grown Up. "And I need a legend. A simple one just like Adam did. I could be Jo or ha! I'll be Caroline! Right, first I need clothes. And then I need a drink or a kiss or something! Ha this is brilliant!"

Coraline shrugged out of her clothes into Bill's oversized shirt and tugged on a pair of converse flats. Wrapping a belt around her middle she looked- well, Coraline thought she looked odd but she in fact looked hot. Peeking out of her bedroom Coraline looked around before making her escape.

"Going out!" Coraline yelled as she ran out of the Homestead. The island was in for a whole world of trouble.

OOC: Catch Coraline going up to the Compoung or trying to find something to wear.

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He had only been up for an hour or so, but Johnny had already learned several important* things about being older. One: he was still fairly invisible, especially compared to the rest of the island. Two: instead of growing into his nose like his mother had always said his nose seemed to be on a mission to take over his face. Three: the clothes box still disliked him. And four: shaving was difficult.

But at least he was taller and his voice no longer squeaked at embarrassing moments. Or so he hoped. Nothing particularly embarrassing had happened yet and Johnny was in no hurry to go out and hunt awkward moments down. Instead he was just walking around, trying to get a feel for this new body. It was weird. He was still him, Johnny Maxwell, age fourteen-ish. He knew he was still him, but every time he happened to catch a glimpse of his reflection or his taller shadow it was awfully hard to make himself remember that fact.

*And frankly, rather depressing.

There were some things that would never change no matter how old Coraline was or at least appeared to be. She would always love wellington boots. She would always love running and sports and activities and her new older body seemed very keen on them. And she would always love making Johnny Maxwell squeak like a girl.

Coraline lured in wait, waiting for him to pass her by before she ran straight for him and pounced. The only problem with this was that Coraline had been a fourteen year old girl before and now she was very definitely a woman. With a very womanly shape and womanly legs and certain other womanly things in the chest area.

"Hi Johnny!" Coraline said cheerily. Well, okay maybe her plan to pretend to be Caroline wasn't going quite as well but really it was only Johnny who was he going to tell.

Mercifully, Johnny did not squeak. He did, however, flail quite a bit as he tried to unwind the woman from him with the minimum amount of touching allowed. And looking. Strange women didn't just pounce on him, especially not ones that looked like this. In fact, the only person who pounced on him at all was--

"...Coraline?"

She sounded like Coraline. She acted like Coraline. But, while most of her looked like Coraline, there were several parts of her that definitely didn't.

Coraline, to tell the truth, was a little disappointed by the lack of squealing. Coraline enjoyed Johnny flailing but it wasn't quite the same and he wasn't quite the same either. He was still Johnny, she recognised him but he was taller and much more well, Johnny-ish.

"Of course, who else did you think it was? Do you often get girls lurking in bushes and jumping out at you?" Coraline asked curiously, scrunching her face up exactly like she would normally do. Coraline grinned at Johnny before straightening up and poking a finger into his, quite nice, chest. "But you're not to call me Coraline, it's Caroline. Okay? Or else no one will let me do anything and I want to do Everything. I've got a list."

This was beginning to be worryingly similar to the situation with Kirsty back in Blackbury. Both girls insisted on changing their names, both had lists, and both were awfully good at bossing him around. And Johnny was going to go along with it. He always did. Fighting against girls like that took too much effort.

"What sort of a list?

"A list of everything I want to do but am not allowed to do because I'm apparently not old enough. But now I am, old enough, I mean." Coraline said, pulling said list from the shirt pocket and showing it quickly to Johnny before removing it from view. She didn't want Johnny to know everything just in case Kon found him and questioned him. "I mean, first I really need clothes that fit me. See, item one. A bikini. You can help, you're a boy. You know what boys like, don't you?"

"Umm... I guess so." The idea of this Coraline in a bikini was... well, it was definitely something he'd never bothered thinking about before, but in this body it didn't seem half as weird as it should have. A bit worrying, that.

"So. First clothing and then what?" The quick glimpse he'd gotten of the list really hadn't helped him much. He couldn't think of anything he really wanted to do as an adult, but this was Coraline. It was a good thing that the Rapture business was over with or who knew what he might have been dragged into doing?

"Good, excellent. Come on then," Coraline said taking Johnny's hand and dragging him along with her towards the compound. Coraline could get Johnny's um opinion and figure out which was the best um inducing bikini and then that's the one she'd pick. "Well, we can't go to that Rapture place which is annoying but we could go the Hub or the Winchester or oooh that place I'm really, really not allowed to go in. And then after that adventure and after that I don't know. It's a very long list of things to do."

Most of what Coraline was saying passed him by in a feminine blur, but one thing stood out from the rest like a brontosaurus in a car park.

"Wait. What's that place you're really, really not allowed to go in?" Johnny didn't know what Coraline was planning and, while knowing probably wouldn't stop his involvement, it would make him feel a little bit easier when everything went spectacularly wrong in the end.

"The Club? You know the one with the security people on the door. I've always wanted to go in there to explore but they've never let me. Now, they can't stop me. I mean, I'm old enough right? Or at least I look old enough." Coraline said, thinking that this plan was the best idea. Coraline grinned at Johnny tugging his hand, apparently when she got older her need to run and skip and go places quickly hadn't disappeared but had in fact gotten stronger. "So, we're going to go in there."

"Probably it's just something boring," Johnny said as he did his best to keep up with Coraline. One advantage to being an adult was definitely longer legs. "Probably it's just boring shows on a crap tv and an old video game in the corner and some people trying to dance really badly while other people drink." Granted, his description sounded more like the local pub back in Blackbury than anything on the island, but he was doing it for Coraline's own good. Maybe if she thought it was boring she'd pick a new destination.

Coraline tossed her hair over shoulder, turning to look at Johnny seriously as she walked backwards.

"Oh, yes. Because they put security guards and won't let anyone in because it's something really boring." Coraline said half smiling at Johnny. Coraline wrapped her arm around his, squeezing it affectionately and pressing against his side. "You are silly sometimes Johnny. It has to be something really cool or dangerous. Like caged dinosaur fights or aliens versus cowboys or something."

Johnny shrugged. He knew when to give up. Besides, with Coraline pressed up against him like that it was getting difficult to think up responses as clearly as he would've liked. And something inside was telling him on no uncertain terms that this was not the time for 'umm...'.

"Well, maybe. I still don't think it's cowboys and aliens inside of there though."

"But you're saying it could be caged dinosaur fights? Cool," Coraline said leaning against Johnny a little and grinning happily. Coraline pressed her lips together, glancing at Johnny sideways as she considered him. Johnny was still Johnny whether he was a boy, girl or man but there was something more Johnnyish when he was a man rather than a boy or a girl. "You look... different. Good different. I mean."

"Do I?" Well, that was a stupid response. Of course, he looked different, he'd spent almost half an hour that morning getting used to that fact. So why couldn't he think of something cool to say instead? Was there anything cool you could say to that?

"Umm... Thanks?"

"Yes, of course you do. Haven't you looked at yourself? You look well... nice. I mean, you normally look nice but now you look well um. You look very um," Coraline said, grinning as she brushed her hair behind her ear with her free hand. Coraline flushed a little, not too much but just a smidge. Apparently at least when she got older she learned how to hide her embarassment a bit more.

"Oh."

The situation had now officially crossed over into weird territory. Any minute now Johnny expected the creepy music to start playing before Rod Serling popped out from behind a bush with a book.

"Well, I guess you look very um too. I mean, nice. You look very nice. Not that you don't always look nice, but umm..." Complimenting girls was much harder than it looked in the movies.

"Thanks Johnny," Coraline said genuinely smiling at the sort of compliment. Coraline expected the um's from Johnny, he wasn't like other boys and well, other boys tended to not compliment her at all. "We'll measure the bikinis on levels of um. I think that's the sure way to know exactly which one to wear."

"So what, if it's a short um it's a no and if it's a longer um it's a yes?" Johnny thought it over for a moment before finding a flaw in the system. "But what if one's so bad -or good really- so good that I can't say anything? What if it's like on a beyond-um level or something?"

He was rambling now and he really didn't care.

"Yes, that sounds about right." Coraline said smiling at Johnny and taking his hand again when she thought they were going too slowly. Coraline could see the compound now and that meant she was only more eager to change. "Well, if it's beyond um level or that bad or good then we'll have to use the nodding or shaking system."

Coraline could quite easily imagine the no silence, she'd had that from Kon quite a few times followed by him telling her to go change. Usually that meant the dress itself was a good one.

"Got it," Johnny said, nodding in agreement and picking up the pace. It was getting beyond surreal now. He was a young teenaged boy stuck in an adult's body and a-- well, to put it frankly, a hot girl was walking close to him. His pop culture trained mind knew that there was only one thing missing from this equation.

"You didn't happen to see any unplugged fortune telling machines around, did you? Before all of this happened, I mean?"

"No, why would I see a- oh, you mean like from Big. Right?" Coraline asked curiously before seriously considering the question. Coraline had been wishing for a long time to grow up but she doubted the island had really answered her particular wish. It was probably just one of those weeks. "No, I haven't used an unplugged fortune telling machine or asked a wish from a sea witch or anything like that. I just woke up like this, why did you see a Fortune telling machine?"

Coraline bounded up the steps, pulling Johnny with her into the compound as she went.

"No," Johnny answered as he was pulled up the steps. It was getting difficult to remember to keep his gaze on something neutral and every now and then he found himself drawn to look at Coraline. This was a problem in of itself due to the fact that when she moved there was a whole lot more of her moving than before and it was getting very distracting.

"No, I didn't. But I keep thinking there has to be something. I mean, even when it was aliens or dead people there was still a reason for why it was happening."

"Oh, it happens all the time. Sometimes people switch bodies or personalities or become girls or boys or get old or get really young. There's usually never a reason, I don't think this island has reasons. It's pretty whimsical," Coraline said knowingly even if she wasn't quite sure how to stop spelling whimsical. Coraline bounced down the Compound pulling Johnny down with her towards where the clothes box lived. "I was Stephen Colbert once, that was weird. I yelled a lot."

Coraline dragged Johnny in front of the box and peeked in. "Right, I want something um inspiring. The bigger the um the better."

He could have asked who Stephen Colbert was, but he wasn't even going to bother. Life was too short as it was (and was probably even shorter now that he'd packed ten years or so into one night). Besides, he wasn't here for conversation. His sole purpose here was to um.

"Or possibly the beyond-um," he pointed out, looking at the box. They had an uncomfortable history together, but at least digging in it was Coraline's task, not his.